It is conventional in the prior art to provide some form of starting assist to aid in the starting of diesel engines when the engines are cold. Two widely used starting assists are ether injection and glow plug ignitors which ignite a small quantity of diesel fuel in the engine manifold, the ignitors being generally referred to as thermostarts. Ether injection is preferred by some because it provides a faster cold start. On the other hand, others prefer thermostart because of low cost and the advantage of not having to replenish the starting aid.
Each type of starting assist has its own set of characteristics hence it has been conventional to provide separate hardware components and cabling specific to the starting assist on a particular engine. This increases manufacturing costs and complicates factory inventory and design.